Saturday, March 23, 2013

BUDDHIST-MUSLIM CLASHES IN MEIKHTILA

B.RAMAN

Between 20 and 26 persons are reported to have been
killed in three days of violent clashes between Buddhists and Burman Muslims
(not Rohingyas) in the central Myanmar cantonment town of Meikhtila since March
20,2013. Official figures have, however, given the death toll as five only till
the evening of March 22.

2. The town has a population of about 100,000 of
whom one-third are estimated to be Muslims. The violence reportedly broke out
following a quarrel between the Muslim owner of a jewellery shop and some of
his Buddhist customers.

3.Five mosques, including the main mosque of the
town, are reported to have been burnt down by Buddhist mobs. Armed Buddhist
monks prevented journalists from taking photographs of the damages caused to
the mosques.

4.Finding the local police unable to bring the
violence under control, the Government imposed a State of Emergency in
Meikhtilla and neighbouring townships and villages on March 22 to enable the
deployment of the Army.

5. A reporter of the privately-owned Irrawaddy
Journal has reported as follows: “Photo evidence of widespread carnage is also emerging,
with news media websites and social media sites such as Facebook posting
pictures that show numerous charred bodies and whole neighborhoods on fire. Some
local residents told The Irrawaddy that militant Buddhist monks and laymen went
on a rampage through the city in Mandalay Division on Friday morning,
destroying mosques and what they believed were Muslim-owned properties. “It’s
as if they are destroying the town. The situation is now out of control,” said
a Pauk Chaung quarter resident, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of his
safety.”

6.He said Muslim residents were seeking shelter at
sites in Meikhtila where police could offer them some form of protection. “They
[police] are standing guard over 800 Muslim people taking refuge at a football
ground. Now I’ve heard that the ministers for internal affairs and religious
affairs and the chief minister for Mandalay Division are here,” the Buddhist
man said. However, police had little control over events, according to the
resident. “Now we have nearly 30 truckloads of riot police here, but they can’t
control the mob,” he said. “Instead they are trying to put out the fires.”

7.The
Irrawaddy Journal reporter added: “Thousands of Muslims, who are believed to
make up as much as a third of the city’s population, have reportedly fled since
Wednesday out of fear that they might be killed. On Friday evening, The
Irrawaddy’s reporter in Meikhtila observed police evacuating about 1,500
residents, mostly women and children, out of the city’s Chan Aye quarter to a
makeshift refugee camp on the town’s outskirts. More than 2,000 Muslim refugees
were gathered at the site.”

8. Meikhtila is a garrison city (Cantonment) with a
heavy military presence, located halfway between Mandalay and Naypyidaw.

9.The Journal has quoted Kay OO May, a
representative of a local NGO, as saying that 12 Muslims and eight Buddhists are dead. “I
myself witnessed two dead bodies,” she said. “Five mosques, including the
biggest one, were destroyed. The Muslim quarter of Chan Aye was the most
hard-hit.”

10. Members of the 88 Generation Students organization have criticized
President Thein Sein for his allegedly inadequate response to the violence. Islamic
Organizations have sent a letter to the President urging him to urgently provide Muslim people
in the country with lawful protection.

11.The
Irrawaddy Journal has commented as follows:’ “The clashes in Meikhtila are the
latest flare-up in ongoing Buddhist and Muslim inter-communal violence in
Burma. Since June 2012 there have been recurrent waves of violence between
Buddhist Arakanese and Muslim Rohingya in western Burma’s Arakan State, which
have killed 180 people and displaced 110,000 villagers, mostly Rohingyas. In
recent months there have been several reports of inter-communal clashes in
other parts of Burma, but no one was reportedly killed in these incidents.”